Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!gtss!chas
From: chas@gtss.gatech.edu (Charles Cleveland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Mouse buttons (and Boing! Mouse.)
Summary: Clarification and apology, but no outright retraction.
Message-ID: <447@gtss.gatech.edu>
Date: 7 Jul 89 14:54:02 GMT
References: <8907031413.AA11261@jade.berkeley.edu> <1713@ucqais.uc.edu> <7593@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <7213@cbmvax.UUCP> <446@gtss.gatech.edu> <7235@cbmvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: chas@gtss.gatech.edu (Charles Cleveland)
Organization: Georgia Tech School of Physics
Lines: 51

In article <7235@cbmvax.UUCP> unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) writes:
) [many fine things, some about my wife]

[Let me also say that my following statements are based on experience with
a Sun and a AT with a Mouse Systems mouse.  I had thought that all optical
mice would behave the same way on all systems but it now occurs to me that
the drivers on the Sun and the AT were specifically written for an optical
mouse while the driver on the Amiga was written for a balled mouse but
can be used with an optical one.  Can anyone with access to both look for
differences or see how the signals from an optical mouse could be used
to make it less sensitive to orientation?]

Before everybody jumps all over me and we waste even more bandwidth,
			LET ME ADMIT ERROR.

(I knew you would.)

I did, yes truly, I did overstate things as regards the lack of effect of
orientation on an optical mouse.  I can only rotate the mouse on the Sun
through about 75 degrees to either side of the normally aligned direction
without trouble.  Between rotations of about 75 and 105 the pointer doesn't
move as far (at exactly 90 degrees it doesn't move at all) and from 105 to 180
degrees it moves backwards (of course, or it would matter whether you put
the mouse pad down upside down.)  Close to 90 degrees small errors in
orientation can make the behavior seem erratic.  Some gradual change in
effective resolution at smaller angles seems probable but my casual tests of
distance of mouse movement for the pointer to cross the screen as a function
of orientation of the mouse showed no evidence of it.

Note again that this is on a Sun.  I believe my wife's mouse on her AT behaves
the same way though I have used it far less, and haven't performed any
experiments with it.

My wife's eye-hand coordination comes into this because when things don't
work the way she expects, she has trouble figuring out what she is doing
wrong.  She has always hated mice, both on the Mac and the Amiga, but likes
trackballs.  When I introduced her to the Amiga it was clear that she
couldn't understand why when she moved her hand to the right on the desk the
pointer moved diagonally, and she became quite exasperated.  Of course, the
mouse orientation didn't line up with the desk.  Hence when you complained
that the orientation of your optical mouse had to be lined up with the edges
of the pad, bells went off.  They said 'BONG!  Hey, that depends on personal
perspective!'.  I wish they would shut up.

She on the other hand really likes her optical mouse and has had no trouble
with it at all.
--
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it." -- Alex Schure

Charles Cleveland   Georgia Tech School of Physics   Atlanta, GA 30332-0430
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